There are plenty of tips and guides online that will tell you how to write a novel. There are thousands of tips and tricks for writing. I wanted to take a different perspective and look at the 10 things that unpublished authors do consistently.

This is the list I think every writer can take to heart. It’s the perfect length, the perfect amount of content and you can know immediately whether or not you’re following this path of “never writing a novel” or at least never finishing it.

1. You Never Make Time to Write

This is the big one. This is an obvious one. You will hear this from every single writer around the world, “you have to make time to write” and that holds true no matter what situation. If you’re not writing, you’re just not writing. If you’re not writing, you will never write your novel.

2. You Never Make Time to Better Your Writing

You don’t just wake up one day and have written an entire full-length novel. If you’re not writing, which is number one on our list, a simple solution could just be that you’re not making time. If you’re not making time for writing that you’re not writing. If you’re not making time and are not writing, then you’re never going to write your novel.

3. You Think You’re Already A Perfect Writer

You are not an idiot savant. If you were, the world would already know your name. But that same reasoning, you’re not a perfect writer. Continuing with this reasoning, you can’t just sit down and write the perfect novel whenever you get around to it. You need to research writing, learn more about writing, about plot development and character creation to make your novel perfect. The educational writer is never done. If you think you’re already the perfect writer, you will never write your novel.

4. You’re a Perfectionist Editor

I talked about this topic several times. You can spend six months editing the first paragraph and it could be perfect but you will still have over 300 pages to go with no idea whether you’re plot or your characters work. It stands to reason that your perfectionist editor, you’re never going to write or finish writing your novel. A word of advice, perhaps should send the editing out of house.

5. You Don’t Take the Time to Write an Outline

Some great writers can do this. They can go into a novel without any idea how it’s going to turn out and they can spin it into gold. You, however, will not do that. You need an outline. The majority of writers do, it’s just a fact. If you’re not working on a plot for your novel, then you’re never going to finish your novel.

6. You Don’t Set Goals for Yourself

A life without goals is a life without direction. That means if you don’t have a set routine every day with goals, you’re never going to finish your novel. You need to break your novels up into goals that are attainable. You should have a daily word count to reach, or an editing goal, or some other goal related to your writing that keeps you on track. It’s not only good so that you’ll be able to measure your success in writing and progressing in the creation of your novel, but deadlines are very important thing to be on time for. If you don’t set goals for yourself you’re never going to finish her novel.

7. You Let Other People or Excuses Get In Your Way

excuses, excuses, excuses. The cats in the room, the kids are too quiet, the kids are too noisy, there’s a fire in the kitchen, all of these things can be ignored or deferred to another person, within reason. I could go back to making time to write, and making sure it’s one you’ll have to least distractions. But letting other people and little distractions be your never ending excuse for not writing will ultimately lead to never finishing your novel.

8. You Don’t Let Anyone Give You Feedback

Feedback is critical. After reading and rereading, editing and reediting, you’ll need a fresh perspective and a fresh set of eyes to take a look at your novel. It’s not just about punctuation; it’s about the flow and the characters in the story. You need a list of people you can trust to read your novel and give you constructive feedback. They are getting feedback on your novel then you’re never going to finish it.

9. You Don’t Consider Yourself A Writer

If you are writing, anything at all, no matter what you’re writing, you are a writer. If you don’t consider yourself a writer you’re not going to make your writing a priority in your life. That means the phone ringing, the dog barking, your excuses, other people’s excuses, are going to be constant factors in never writing or publishing your novel. If you don’t consider yourself a writer, you will never write your novel and you’ll never be a writer.

10. You Don’t Think You Will Ever Finish Your Novel

Diligence and dedication is what separates the amateurs from the professionals. None of us ever thought were going to finish our first novel. I mean, we did but some days it seemed impossible. You just have to keep at it. It’s got a something you love, something you can do every day and never regret.

When you find out writing is more than just a potential job, something that’s part of you, you’ll figure out that it’s not ‘if’ you will ever finish your novel but ‘when’ you finish your novel. If you don’t think you will ever finish your novel, you never will unless you start trying.

So make time to write your novel. Make time to write it and then write it. Learn as much as you can about writing, the publishing industry, and everything else you can learn. It can never hurt you to know too much about something you love. Actually, I’m pretty sure that would make you an expert at something you love.

Make time, write, learn, grow and live. Don’t look for outside definitions of what makes you a writer. If you’re a writer then you already know it, so get writing.

Photo Credit: Origami Madness

Thank you for visiting The Official Karisha Prescott Website! For more top posts, try the Featured Articles page or Writing page for more free tips. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed in an RSS reader to keep up with my most recent posts.
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My friend Charmaine Clancy over at Wagging Tales has a great idea going which she got from Tossing It Out. ‘Blogging from A to Z Challenge’ (26 posts) where, you guessed it! The challenge is to blog 26 posts in the month of April from A to Z!

I think this is a GREAT idea! Thanks Charmaine Clancy!

I’m going to add links to all the blog posts for this month in this post, but you will be able to see them on the home page. Good luck to everyone taking this blog challenge! I’m sure we will all do great and I’m really looking forward to this challenge!

For my A to Z Challenge, I am going to keep everything as relevant to Writing, Publishing and Novels as possible! Wish me luck!

So to kick this Blogging Challenge Off…

A is for Advertising!

B is for Blogging and Authors!

C is for Characters!

D is for Dedication to Writing!

E is for Dangers of EDITING Your Novel!

F is for Fanbase Creation!

G is for Fiction Genres and Sub Genres!

H is for Writer’s Haven!

I is for Writers’ Inspiration!

Feel free to link your A to Z Challenge blog in the comments section!

Good Luck and Thanks for Reading!

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Thank you for visiting The Official Karisha Prescott Website! For more top posts, try the Featured Articles page or Writing page for more free tips. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed in an RSS reader to keep up with my most recent posts.
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Photo Credit: mag3737

There is no such thing as ‘Ten Easy Tips to Writing a Novel’ because it’s too complex. Now, I will still say that writing a novel is easy, but it can be complex in the fact that so many easy, little pieces need to fit together.

Let’s face it, the economy is slow, the publishing industry is ‘playing it safe’ so if you are a new writer you are self-financing or self/vanity publishing your works.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We are talking about the simplicity and complexities of actually writing your novel.

Let’s take an overall look at what is required in the novel writing process.

Time: more than anything else in the world, beyond your method of writing, the genre you choose or anything else, you need time to write and time to work on promoting your work. It can be as little as twenty minutes at the end of your day to all but four hours a day (sleep critical amount).

Time is fickle. The more time you put in, the faster you could possibly have your novel ready. Each novel is different to take into account length, difficulty, plot issues, etc.

Ability: I don’t push unnecessary education. I think anyone is able to tell a story, anyone could write a novel and the basic knowledge is all you need. The basic knowledge would be a Basic English 101 class on grammar, sentence structure, etc.

I don’t recommend creative writing classes and I have elaborated about this on my blog on several occasions. I just don’t think that creativity could or SHOULD be learned. I strongly believe creative writing alters the unique creative writing voice that so many let others dampen. So, of course, it’s at every writer’s discretion.

Forming a Solid Novel Idea: Any story can fail and the same story can succeed; the real determining factor is how it is told and at what point in the story the writer is focusing on. A story that focuses on the events leading up to the destruction of an American landmark is a completely different story from that where families learn to cope with loss arising from the same situation or heartbroken volunteers working to clear away the rubble and debris. In the World of Writing, we would call this the ‘take’ or the ‘angle’ of the story.

Structure of a Novel: You need to know how the story ends. (My opinion, some would argue against my view here) Knowing how the story ends means you know what your main character’s (protagonist) ultimate goal is and can keep them on track. If your character wanders off willy-nilly at every bump and pin-drop in the night your readers may think they are on a wild goose chase and ultimately give up as well. So when we look at structure, we look at having a beginning, middle and an ultimate end or conclusion to the story, and mapping out what those main scenes are.

Momentum: Almost the same as structure, but it is more in the style of writing. Instead of long internal dialogue, you want to keep your character IN ACTION, constantly moving toward that end result. You don’t want your character to constantly be pondering the movement of leaves and grass, you want your character swinging from branches and feeling alive…alive in action.

A Crisis: Your character needs a dilemma, a crisis, a purpose. A purpose that drives your character to the ultimate end; so if the government mistakenly filters the air with poisonous ‘air packs’ (basically plot from ‘Serenity’) and only one person on the planet knows about it, that one person should be your main character and your main characters crisis should be to warn the people of the world and prevent millions of deaths. THAT is a crisis. Crises can be different on different levels of importance in different ways, but have some sort of crisis, whether world-scale or personal-world-shattering that needs ACTION.

Ultimate End: you need an end. That is how most stories go. Even if the end leaves your reader feeling angry, distain, whatever, it needs to have an end that has a feeling and the reader says ‘No more?’ and what they take from it at that point is up in the air, for the most part.

Editing: Ah, you thought you were done with that novel? Not yet. This is only the beginning. However long you spent writing your novel, think about spending the same amount of time or double that time just in editing. That is, if you are self editing. You should edit more than once, move on to the ‘Beta Readers’ part and then move back to the ‘Editing’ phase again. You should go back and forth several times.

Beta Readers: You need testers. Test readers that actually LIKE the genre you are writing and are also willing to read your story several times through out your editing process and give you quality feedback. Finding good beta readers and understanding how to interact with beta readers is very important; you shouldn’t be grilling your beta readers before they have even had a chance to sit down. You should be silent and let them say whatever comes to mind. This way, you are not swaying the ‘results’ etc.

Consider a Publisher or Consider a Self-Publishing method: I am all for the self-publishing method because I understand the value in owning full rights to my work for the rest of my life. This means no advances, but it also means I get 100% free reign on how much to price it, how it will be released, cover design, where it will be sold, if there is a book tour, etc. Self-publishing is where I am at. Does that mean I would look at a million-dollar book deal with a traditional publisher and scoff? Not a chance…but I know that the state of my writing and success as it is now, I should be completely happy with the methods of the self-publishing world.

Traditional Publishing: I could write a book on the Traditional publishing methods. Oh wait, someone already has! Hundreds of times over! My blog still covers traditional publishing topics like query letters, advances, royalties, marketing, rights, book tours, etc.

Marketing and Advertising: Welcome to the world of independence. As a self-publishing/ed author, I don’t care what your day job is, you ARE the entrepreneur of the century. You are handling everything from creating an idea, writing a novel, handling editing, test readers, and now marketing and advertising! You will have to maintain blogs, twitter streams, social networking profiles, make connections, come up with color schemes and slogans, and everything else that the marketing and advertising teams would do for you in a traditional publishing house. Though, in all fairness, if you’re not Stephen King, you’re doing almost all your marketing and advertising yourself anyway. That includes setting up your own book tours.

Print: Eventually, you will have written, edited, designed, marketed, advertised, blogged and tweeted your little heart out. You are going to eventually have to decide how to deliver your precious bundle of joy to your audience. There are many options and many companies, but the two words synonymous with Self Publishing are ‘eBook’ and ‘Print on Demand’.  I cover both topics extraneously on my blog.

Rinse and Repeat: That’s right. You think you are finally done. You are exhausted, you don’t want to answer one more person ‘So, what is your novel about?’ and your brain hurts from learning marketing, advertising, editing, digital formatting, design layout, etc. in the span of what it took you to write your novel. It can be exhausting. But now that you’re done with your campaign trail it’s time to sit down, get cozy and write your next one.

Don’t worry, chances are that you were writing it while working on all the other stuff for the novel you already wrote. If you are Grade A multitasking madness, you should already be done with your second novel, working on advertising on it and be thinking about your third.

But if you don’t take one thing away from this overview, take this bit of advice:

THINK SEQUEL/ THINK SERIES.

That’s right. If you are going to put all this time, energy and heart into a book, at least have a few books lined up for the series.

Why is that so important?

* Novel idea and character creation is one of the hardest parts.

* 80% of your energy is going to be spent marketing your novel

* If you switch to a different novel you automatically lose all your marketing on just one novel. Capitalize on the marketing you have done: let it span a whole series and build momentum, a readership and hopefully a big fan base of some type.

This is essentially the entire blue print for how to write a novel from beginning to end. It looks complex if you look at all the pages, the long string of parts and roles you will play, but if you just look at doing one thing at a time, as it comes, then it is relatively simple. It’s all in time management and keeping your passion for writing alive.

So, do you think writing is still so hard? Is a Novel really so unattainable an achievement? Or are you excited to get your fingers clicking and your words on paper/screen?

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney

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Thank you for visiting The Official Karisha Prescott Website! For more top posts, try the Featured Articles page or Writing page for more free tips. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed in an RSS reader to keep up with my most recent posts.

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As always, comment, link or subscribe if you like what you read!

Hurray! Now, I’m not in World of Warcraft Gaming but I took a look at EVE online. Yes, I like online games. From online poker to that silly vampire game, I play games. I am also a big TED.com fan. So imagine my surprise when I went prowling for new TED Video’s and found that TEDTalks 2010 has a video on Gamers Saving the world.

Jane McGonigal uses alot of information and statistics from the WoW environment/community/network/players. And this Gaming talk is not about World of Warcraft (WoW) alone. In general, WoW is just most well known the world over with millions upon millions of players.

What does the talk cover? I’m going to embed it below, not very long, but I will try to sumarise. Jane talks about a mass exodus of the world population from real life to virtual online living/gaming. People are spending as much time as a part time job in the gaming world. That is a lot of time.

But it is more than just gaming. She uses four key skills as the ‘Catch-all’ of what gamers are becoming masters at.

Blissful Productivity, Social Fabric, Urgent Optimism, Epic Meaning.

These sound like jibberish if you didn’t watch/listen to her TedTalk but I will try to summarize them as best I can.

Blissful Productivity means that the gamers find satisfaction in what they are doing online and they ENJOY working hard toward a goal. Social Fabric – good at communication, working with teammates/others and generally builds a fabric of trust with complete strangers if the only common denominator may be playing games. Urgent Optimism – Gamers are willing to ACT NOW toward a goal if they know that they have the skills and means to achieve the desired outcome (An EPIC WIN in gaming terminology).

And Epic Meaning – where gamers want to be apart of a BIGGER PICTURE and mean more to the world. Gamers are thinking more than just ‘One’, they are used to looking at large-scale and even ‘galactic’ cause/effect and outcomes.

Jane goes on to talk about Gamers as an untapped resource, the future of gamers from 500 million to 1.5 billion in the next ten years and her research/development and work in building games that connect the disconnect of virtual and online gaming to real life.

She has developed games concerning Oil shortages that have effected real-life lifestyles of the gamers, Super Struct

And her future Gamer project is EVOKE about solving problems, mostly with third-world countries. The amazing part of EVOKE is that it is being pushed with the promise of prestige by the World Bank, a real life award and the implementation of ideas and training in the means to give real world results. It covers social innovation and resourcefulness. You really have to see it to believe it.

It is exciting to see Gamers getting more credit, games being considered something more than a hobby and the ultimate skills they impliment. I know that whenever I feel guilty for my online gaming, or I feel guilty for browsing during my ASU Classes, I browse on over to FREERICE.COM to test my brain and feed the world ten grains of rice at a time. Every little bit helps.

What did you think of Jane’s Ted Talk? How do you see games effecting the world and the ‘epidemic’ of game addict looked at in a positive-impact light?

Jane McGonigal: Gaming Can Make a Better World

Ted.Com

Video Length: 20:04 Minutes

Photo Credit: Tiago Ribeiro

It’s Spring Break here at Arizona State University (ASU)! After an awesome St. Patrick’s Day, I’m all about pool side reading. Picking up the March 2010 Time, I found a few articles interesting.

An article I didn’t expect to really jump out at me was the article ” The Dropout Economy” written by Reihan Salam.

First, I love how it went over lots of topics I am interested, seamlessly. From the failure of the education system, the overpricing and irrelevance of college to green energy topics, co-ops and underground economies and currencies.

I especially liked the terms “Hacktavist” and “Freeganism” which are delightful meshes of awesome words. I didn’t really like the cartoon shown above the article, but you can’t be too picky. The article itself was a delight.

And I am looking forward to seeing it come to fruition, the depictions of the direction of America in our floundering economic situation. Talking about homeschooling, community bartering /currencies and self-sufficiency being on a fast rise makes me worry less about a ‘fat, lazy america’ that is constantly in the news.

Am I excited that the drop out rate for high school kids being 3 out of 10? No, I would like people to know how to do math and spell correctly. But I also know that when you put a person in a certain field or trade where that information is required, it is usually picked up fairly quickly. If not from a desire to learn than just from a constant exposure to it.

I have to remind myself that putting as many people through extensive educational systems as possible to increase intelligence, efficiency and community contribution is a fairly new concept. And could be, in itself, inefficient.

A nation of ‘children’ that once began working at ten or twelve are now in school, hopefully learning, until their mid twenties and then deciding a career. It looks like our society is regressing in that respect, but I don’t know if that is neccessarily a bad thing.

I suggest you read Salam’s article “The Dropout Economy” and get an ‘overview’ of his thoughts. I have to compliment his flow for the article. It is a plethora of ideas and information made seamless and condensed perfectly to overwhelm the brain with ideas, thoughts and happier visions of the future of America and the world.

Hope everyone had a Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Hurray Green BEER!

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Thank you for visiting The Official Karisha Prescott Website! For more top posts, try the Featured Articles page or Writing page for more free tips. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed in an RSS reader to keep up with my most recent posts.
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Photo Credit: SMLions12

Have you ever watched a movie and thought to yourself  ’Gosh this sounds familiar‘ not in the sense of the dialogue perhaps but the general storyline. Welcome to Hollywood. But we can take this same idea and apply it to the way we write. Everything starts as a book (or a screenplay) these days, after all.

While I am not fond of this method, it is a way to get the ‘methods’ right. Take Nora Roberts as an example. Nothing against Mrs. Roberts and her writing, but she tends to follow the same plan for disaster or ‘romance’ in each of her books. It’s because she has found an equation that works for her and she memorized it well.

Addicted Nora Roberts fans know when they pick up her latest book the way she sets up her stories, the way she writes her characters, and they have come to depend on her steady style. There is nothing wrong with this. But take notice.

If it is your dream to write the next great American novel, you may want to take a step back and look at the success that is already hitting the bestsellers list. Stephen King probably would not be the best example as he likes to vary his style and topics widely, but Nora Roberts and most romance are perfect cookie-cutter-examples.

In the event that you model after a great story, not neccessarily a romance but a great story in general; be it mythology and legend, lore, romeo and juliet, alice in wonderland, etc., you have to be aware of what you are giving up.

While you may attempt to keep the integrity of your voice, your perspective, you have to remember to follow the method of the proven madness. Is it a sure fire winner? No. The only thing that is guaranteed in life is Death and Taxes.

Then again, there have been many a writer to make it off a classically themed story; taking a different perspective on a classic/traditional tale. If nothing else it is a great creative outlet. Go ahead and try to rewrite Romeo and Juliet. Many have tried, many have failed, but just try to change one aspect or take a different angle. Perhaps it is set in the 21st century or maybe there is a steampunk revolution going on? Steampunk is big right now…so thats food for thought! Hope this helped.

Would love to hear how you view stories of old translated, changed in terms of perspective, altered in small or even big details. Can you think of a story that doesn’t have a classical root to its storyline in some way?

Thanks again for reading!

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Thank you for visiting The Official Karisha Prescott Website! For more top posts, try the Featured Articles page or Writing page for more free tips. Like this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed in an RSS reader to keep up with my most recent posts.

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As always, comment, link or subscribe if you like what you read!

Ballet Folklorico Alegria Dancers - Scottsdale Parada Del Sol 2009

I have spent the past couple of months doing everything under the sun BUT edit my writing. Considering I started with 180,000 words and have cut that number down to 91,000 I would say I needed a break.

Of course I would say that. I didn’t want to edit anything else for as long as I lived. But my novel draws me back like a moth to a flame. The time has come. I must continue on my path for my novel.

In my defense, I have had a lot of stuff going on:

• Started College at Arizona State University
• Moved to a new city, Scottsdale~!
• Set up a new ‘office’ space and have been moving furniture around trying to get ‘cozy’
• Procrastinating to the point where I should get some sort of award

Okay, a majority of that is fluff added so I won’t feel so terrible that I haven’t been editing. I have been writing…but I have been starting new projects which have nothing to do with my current works. That is a big no-no. If I have lots of projects going on, my attention becomes even more divided.

Well, now that my first round of midterms are done for the spring semester, I have determined that I need to study A LOT and that I should have my novel as finished as I can make it.

On a positive note, my procrastination has helped me do a few things:

• I am only on Facebook when I am in class, versus all day.
• I auto-post to twitter now, so I don’t tweet-attack the world
• I have been spending a lot more time catching up on my RSS feed (that is important to me, it’s all about the book world! And that is heaven!)
• I have been able to spend more time with family than I have in years (Lots of family in the Phoenix, Az area)

Anything else worth talking about:

I am going to be posting a lot of information on the book world now. Lots of gifting ideas and shopping ideas (Since that is my #1 go-to when I surf online I might as well share the cool stuff I find with you all!)

I am very excited for the 10th book in the Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Chronicles by Charlaine Harris ‘Dead in the Family’. For all you Vamp Book haters out there, back off. Sookie is an amateur sleuth stuck in an ugly world out there. She needs our support. (I hear rumors that this, or the next book, may be the end of the series *gasp**begins sinking into a deep depression*)

On a side note about the Sookie Series: TruBlood, the tv show, may be incredibly hollywood-keen but it is a completely different direction from the books. Charlaine Harris doesn’t mind, but it is important that you know: Just because you saw an episode doesn’t mean you ‘know’ Sookie. The first episode remains true about half way through, after that – It’s Hollywood sensationalism. Just wanted to point that out!

Okay, Obviously I am supposed to be editing right now or I wouldn’t write a novel of a post here. Just trying to keep you in the loop (all 2 readers out there – which includes my mom, I am sure) and I hope everyone is doing GREAT!

Have a great day and whatever you do…don’t write that your vampires sparkle. Please. Pretty Please. Or I will stake you *Just Kidding*

Thanks for reading!

Sometimes you just have to let your procrastination flag fly. If you read me often, you know how I feel about procrastination. If not, basically procrastination is the best tool in a writers arsenal. Procrastination is the minds form of idea-seeking, thought-forming, preparation tool. So, as I was saying, let your procrastination/randomness flag fly.

And I’m going to help you out.

Quality Free Desktop Wallpapers are hard to come by when it pertains to writing. It can take some time, scouring the internet, to find something that relates, something that really makes you go ‘Ah Ha!’ and lets your mind stop wandering.

I’ve put together a quick list of free wallpapers I have found that are interesting and pertain to the fiction writing world. So if you are an author and you are on the prowl for a desktop, look no further.

1. The Desktop Wallpaper I myself am Using Now

I made this one number one on my Free Desktop Wallpaper list for Writers because…well, it’s my desktop so obviously I think it is the best. That is not to say there are not other, far more interesting, desktop wallpapers out there.

2. Oceanic Fiction

This Free Desktop Wallpaper by Wallcoo.net is straight out of a fiction novel. Well, not literally but it sure gets the imagination going. It definitely captures the concept of my working series so I’m adding it to the list.

3. City in a Bird Cage

This theme is close to the #1 spot, with the fishbowl. I relate it to fiction. Each and every writer is nurturing their own world in their own way. ‘There can be many like it but this one is mine” and so, in a way, each novel is our little world in a birdcage/fishbowl/snow globe.  I think this is a nice, clean depiction of that.

4. Anthem of the Writers World – Coffee Please!

Coffee Wallpaper by SED Art

This is a good one. Simple, I love simple, and to the point. It’s a coffee cup. GREAT! Because if you are writing a novel, you know…coffee is your only friend.

5. Platinum Conception

Another wallpaper by WallCoo.com and a very literal one if you are looking at writing your novel as a race. I would say it reminds me of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme that is sweeping the nation. But really, it is just a race track through some wonderful terrain.

6. Simply Inspirational : Writer’s Digest Sinclair Lewis Quote

“It is impossible to discourage the real writers — They don’t give a damn awhat you say, they’re going to write. – Sinclair Lewis” This is a great inspirational quote for all aspiring and current writers. This will get you fired up and keep the nagging voices out of the back of your mind, or at least beat them back. Writers Digest has many inspirational quotes as desktop backgrounds, different colors and with different flourishes or plain. If this color and quote are not your style, give Writers Digest a look. I’m sure they have a background to suit just about anyones tastes.

7. The Rise of a Planet

The Rise of a Planet by BaseSciences.com

This wallpaper by BaseSciences.com is a great wallpaper. It is the ‘rise of a planet’ as it is titled, and really that is what a writer does. Out of thin air comes a new world, a new perspective, a new story. It is busy but still clean and it makes plenty of room to put you desktop icons and shortcuts to be easily viewed. I love it!

8. Canticle for Leibowitz – A Steampunk Blogger

Canticle for Leibowitz

Now, this is new and it is relevant to the blogging/writing community. If anyone has been following the ‘Steampunk’ revolution for the past year now, you will know that almost anything ’steampunk’ has been getting published. It is not really new, it was a genre that started in the 80’s and never really took hold until now. Now it is a freakin’ epidemic.

Am I going to change my writing style right this minute for a fad that may or may not be around for a while? I honestly thought about it, but I think it is a safer bet for the new writer that isn’t set in a genre yet. This has sparked revolution in everything from books, to fashion and I’m guessing many other things. Regardless of where Steampunk is going, this wallpaper is definitely unique and speaks to the Steampunk crowd.

9. InkBlot Butterfly – All things Inkblots

Inkblot Butterfly

The caption reads ‘What do you see here’ and whether you like butterfly’s or skulls, inkblots are a great way to rip into that skull of yours and take a peak at the patterns your mind chooses to see. There is a nice collection of inkblot wallpapers on the internet. If you ever get stumped for some ideas to go into your novel, just give your mind a little self-examination. I don’t recommend dumping your pen on your desk and smearing it around…that could be messy. But you could look into inkblots online. Some seriously artsy stuff going on.

10. Something to Make you Laugh

Better Writer by ScumIcons

This is a funny, albeit rude, wallpaper by ScumIcons on DeviantArt. I had to put it on the list because I’m not a fan of Stephanie Meyer. If you ask, yes I have ‘read’ her and I did like one ‘phrase’ of her twilight series very much.

But can you really call it literature if only one phrase was memorable and the story itself was an emo-success? I’m sure hundreds of misunderstood teenage girls are going to throw themselves off of cliffs when they find out that their precious 15 year old exboyfriend either a) doesn’t sparkle or b) moves away.

I’m just saying…good for you Stephanie Meyer, you made reading ‘cool’ again and that’s a huge accomplishment. But consider this your ‘one hit wonder’.

WELL Folks! That’s it for the ten wallpapers I found that were great picks for writers. If you found some or designed a free desktop wallpaper for writers, feel free to leave a link back to your page!

As always, thanks for reading! Hope this helped you procrastinate into the next scene of your novel. If you are still at a loss, go ahead and poke around. I’m sure I have some more useless ramblings that could spark your brain into a tizzy…eventually…

Photo Credit: Allen Hsu

Content is King – that is the mantra online and for good reason. Content keeps your traffic up, the interest going and keeps people looking at your ads. But today we are comparing the ‘content farms’ of the online world to the average Joe blogger.

Outsourcing is a great way to give your readers a constant flow of content. But for this example, talking about content farming, let’s pit the average Joe professional blogger to the corporate ‘The Man’ monster company in it for the numbers. We are looking at traffic, we are looking at quality and we are looking at content. Normally, you can expect your quality of content to reflect your traffic and vice versa. This is a very simple reward system.

In the online world, should you write quality content you are rewarded with traffic to your site. To explain simply without getting into the nuts and bolts of SEO, Google decides you are more relevant by throwing you in the search  and seeing how many people click on your site from there. No one nominates you besides your readers. You get ‘Dug’ and ‘Tweeted’ about and thus you start your own viral marketing for having quality on your site.

A quick overview of what a Content Farm is: a ‘catch all’ website that covers every topic possible, with low quality to medium quality writing and low amounts of actual information written to turn a quick post and a quick profit.

With some websites out there, called ‘Content Farms’, you will see a breakdown of this ‘reward’ system. The breakdown happens when places like EZine.com produce mass amounts of low quality product and floods the search engines. It makes it hard for quality to surface because the ‘surfer’ has to wade through pages of search engine results of, well, crap.

What happens? The person that ‘queried’ (searches a term) finds crap but instead of looking on page 20 of the search results, gives up and tries a different query. This is a serious problem. And there is good a good rumor on the horizon. I have heard: Though I can’t remember where: That Google, who prides itself on its secret algorithms, is taking a serious look at battling the flood of low quality articles coming from content farms.

(I delayed publishing this post for almost a week trying to figure out where I heard this rumor online and I can’t validate it. Please take it at face value. I have no actual proof that Google is working on this algorithm other than ‘I think they are, I heard they are…I think’ and I’m sorry for that.)

This presents a problem but I don’t know how serious. If you are running a medium or small sized content farm, chances are that you outsource a large portion of your post writing. If you are a small enough company/operation, then you probably make sure to pay for quality. (I hope.) And if that is the case you don’t have a lot to worry about. If, however, you are posting zero-information-high-external-link content, you may want to watch out for this rumor I’ve been hearing.

Does this mean abandon your little content farm immediately? I couldn’t, in good conscious, tell you to do that if it is making you money. It’s up to you and even I wouldn’t abandon something turning a profit until the last minute. You may as well just ride out the content farming wave as long as you can if you have a substantial amount invested and are seeing good returns.

Do I think this is a good time for the average Joe to get into content farming or to start outsourcing articles and posts to compete with the big boys? No. I don’t. Simply, You may be building slowly, but you have a few advantages over the ‘big boys’ that will have you rising to the top.

• You have a personality and it is embedded in your posts (We call this Branding)
• Your posts, while slow to write and accumulate, are ( I assume) of the highest quality because you care about pride and respect, etc.
• You are building a person-to-person loyalty slowly out of your readers. I’m sorry but have you ever heard someone say, ‘I can’t wait until So-and-So who writes for eHow.com puts another interesting link ridden article out about randomness!’ It just doesn’t happen.

So if you are thinking about getting into content farming, STOP! Stop thinking that outsourcing articles for fifty cents a pop will save your blog and increase your readership. If anything, you are going to drive away the fan base you have because the quality will plummet.  If you are going to outsource, be sure to paying for the quality, well constructed articles that will have your site/blog rising to the top of the internet ‘slush piles’ of these content farms. That’s right, I’m not knocking outsourcing. I’m saying :

• Take your time in finding writers that match your style and interests
• Don’t Encourage Sweatshops in India and around the world by paying .50 per post
• Keep your quality at the same level or higher
• Don’t rely on outsourcing – Your readers will begin to tell or worse: will forget your ‘writing style’ in the flood of ghost writers posing as you.

Will Google attempt and/or succeed at weeding out and penalizing content farms? Only time will tell but with the research and funding that Google throws at its main money maker, Search Engine Results and the adjacent ads, I am sure they will fix this monkey-wrench-in-the-machine.

After all, the real threat to Google are Subscription Services offering high quality content in return for filtering out the slush piles. They are coming…content by subscription because…people are tired of spam, landing websites that are 100% ads and articles dancing around an idea but not offering any information or solutions.

Our Lesson? Quality is going to be winning out over Quantity very soon. Stop counting your pages and start counting your loyal traffic numbers because the numbers will lay in loyalty and that will get you skyrocketed to that exlusive Top 10 spot in Google Results soon enough.

Of course, the majority of this post was opinion. I heard a rumor, can’t remember where I heard it but want to know what people think. Do you think Google is working on an algorithm to combat content farms that are clogging up the search results? Do you think it helps or hurts Google that so many content farms are pumping out as much as 4,000 articles/posts a day? Will this affect you in any way? Are subscription services for quality content the wave of the future?

Thanks for reading and as always, please comment, subscribe or just send me an email to tell me what you think!

I’m sporting the awesome palm centro. Yeah, I downgraded from the HTC Tilt ages ago because I kept breaking it and I wanted an easy phone for a while. Now I am drooling and chomping at the bit as my eyes scan over the vast array of smart phones. But in a market flooded with ’smart’ phones and ‘crack’ berries – Picking a phone has become almost as complex as picking a car. You need as seamless a transition as possible. It has to be faster, smaller, thinner, lighter, more durable and be, well, MORE.

I’m looking at several things that are key: touch screen – slab phone is preferred – email, texting, mobile documents, takes photos, social media connection and it has to have some cool apps and potential. Now, potential is misleading. When I say I want potential, I want it to be a ‘first adopters’ kind of item. I want to be leading tech trending and I want people to stop me and ask ‘What is that?’ or say ‘Oh, that is so cool. I want one’.

So here is where we are at when it comes to phones that are flooding the market and doing well.

Blackberry

‘Crack’berries – I’m not going to consider them at all. Why? Because the palm Centro has the same dedicated keyboard and the little tictac keys drive me crazy now.

iPhone

As much as I hate to admit it, I have been considering an iPhone for some time. Why don’t I have one yet? Because I don’t like the apple trend. I’m sorry, I am not an ‘apple fan boy’ or ‘fangirl’ as would be in my case. However, I have to recognize some aspects:

Pros: Great web experience, multi-touch is pretty awesome, it’s now extremely cost-available to just about everyone, the app store has a crazy amount of apps, it is a slab phone and I really like slab phones. Now the cons: They break easy. I have known several owners of iPhones to break the screens within the first week or at least the first month from the simplest drop. That is scary. It is a monopoly – nothing open source there – the app market is flooded (lots of crap and not alot of free stuff), it was trending three years ago – now everyone and their dog has one. And last but not least – this product wont get any better. This is it for the iphone. The only thing they can do past what they already have done is include a butler to carry it around for you and tell you that you are wonderful every ten minutes. iPhone is no longer leading, it’s lagging. There has to be something else…

LG Prada

Now, I loved this phone the first second I saw it. Why? I’m a lover of fashion and it is the ‘Milan’ of phones. What can it do? It’s pretty much a phone, with some neat touch screen and a few little gadgets to entertain. But it’s not really a smart phone. It seems to have shody construction, not customizable, poor reviews and the list goes on. I don’t really care. It is a full touch screen, only a few select buttons at the very bottom, and it says Prada on it. Okay, so this is a very ‘label whore’ kind of phone. What are the cons? It doens’t work with GSM Sim chips. So, I can’t use it. Would I? Yeah. It was pretty and shiny and I haven’t seen one person with it (maybe because as a phone it sucks) Darn…my search continues.

HTC Tilt 2

Well hello wonderful. You are all kinds of beautiful.Ever since the HTC Tilt first edition I have been in love with HTC. They put out consistently good products (in my opinion). It does just about everything the iPhone does and then some. Pros: touch screen, slide out full keyboard, great for email, texting, customizable and it is a set up I am used to. All around, a great phone. Cons: The keyboard, while thinner than the last two editions, still makes the phone thick. And I know this phone, it is just a skinnier, prettier version of that phone I kept dropping and breaking. Okay, one time I got stuck in a rain storm so that is not really fair to the phone but, as I was saying, I know this phone. I want something shiny and new.

HTC Pure

Also great. Not just great, it is a slab phone, no keyboard, still by HTC and it seems very user friendly. It is pretty much the same phone as the Tilt2 except slicked down without the keyboard. Just your average sexy slab phone. Apparently, reviews say it has a lot of screen-sticking, randomly turns off and is generally ‘posessed’ by some higher being and does whatever it wants. I’m not a fan of ‘butt dialing’ so let’s keep looking…

Did I mention I am the ultimate Google FanGirl? And I love HTC?….well, of course I would never have thought the two things I love so much in life would merge…

We have our winner. Say hello to …

Google’s Nexus One

An Andriod phone by Google and HTC. I have died and gone to phone heaven.

I’m actually very suprised I didn’t know this phone existed. I had heard that Google had an android phone called ‘Droid’ (or something) but I didn’t know this was it. Actually, this seems to be Googles second go at an android phone. And this one seems to be a real winner. Why? Let’s go over it all here…

* Slab Phone

* Full Touch Screen except one click-roller-ball (I can deal with that)

* Google Voice is easily added and Free: Transcribes Voicemail automatically (YES! I hate listening to my voicemail)

* Google Maps is pre-installed (What?! You can get a dash attachment for it and set it up as a GPS for your car too? Sweet!)

* Gmail accounts (multiple) are added during your set up (This is a biggie for me: I’m constantly screening multiple email accounts.)

* Some really neat paid and/or free apps in the Marketplace including a neat ‘lighter’ one that acts like a real lighter which I can use during concerts (awesome!)

* Browser is quick – Facebook/YouTube/Media Rich websites are displayed in full browser in amazing time. Super!

* Comes with video tutorials instead of a book (Thank you, I read enough through out the day)

* Wallpapers are ‘Live’ meaning they respond to touch. You will have to watch one of the ‘commercials’ to understand. But it is awesome.

* I consider this the leader in phone technology at the moment. We should be moving toward open-source, free and faster. Nexus One does that.

Cons: If you are not on the TMobile network, then you are going to cry. This bad boy is 550.00 at the moment. That is a big price difference from the easy-cheesy 100.00  (8 gig – with service contract) for the iPhone but the difference is the customizations and free services offered on the Nexus One. The custimization and fluid transition with Google services is important because a majority of my life is stored via Google. Please, spare me the ‘1984′ speech about world domination. Google makes my life easier.

Overall, I’m favoring the Nexus One but am going to wait. It seems AT&T is getting ready to offer android phones (See press release here) and I would love to see how that goes. For now, I will deal with the tic-tac keys.

When I get the Nexus One, I will write a review of it live in my hands after I have had it for a little while and have become fully aquainteted. After all, my phone is my constant companion. It is my computer away from my computer. I need to keep up to date on my email, banking, appointments, stay direction oriented and still do all the regular phone stuff like talking, checking voice-mail and texting. The Nexus One and I will have a lot of bases to cover.

Thanks Google and Thanks HTC, for teaming up and making an awesome product. Now..let’s see if the product-promising-the-moon can deliver in real life. Look for my full review on how all this shopping around turns out! Thanks for reading!